1. RELATED APPLICATIONS
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. FIELD OF INVENTION
My invention relates generally to rotary flint-type spark igniters for gas welding torches and more particularly to such an igniter that also provides in a single tool a soapstone marker and plural torch cleaning wires.
3. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
In the gas welding arts three universal and commonly used tools are the soapstone for marking, the igniter for lighting a torch and cleaning rods to clean the orifices defined in torches, especially those of the cutting variety. These tools individually have long been known and used. Commonly in the past each tool has constituted an entity onto itself and no one commonly has been associated with any other, though generally all of these tools are used at substantially the same time. The instant invention seeks to provide a single structure that combines particular forms of the three tools so that all or any may be available as desired.
Soapstones commonly have been used by mechanics as marking tools without any encasement or support and their ability to be so used has been one of the chief elements causing their popularity. The normal environs of soapstone usage, however, are quite destructive of their physical configuration and the stones themselves commonly are a rather rough and unsophisticated marking tool. In the modern day welding arts there is a fairly high degree of sophistication and often a marker that will make a linear mark that may be quite accurately positioned is not only desirable but sometimes necessary. The instant tool provides such a marker, somewhat in the style of an ordinary mechanical pencil, with a holding structure that surrounds and protects the soapstone marking element and within which it may be retracted during periods of non use for protection.
Spark-type welding igniters have in general been of the flint and striker type and the instant invention adds a new member to this group of device. In the past such igniters as used in the welding arts have generally provided a relatively open striking surface which is susceptible to impact-type physical damage and especially flame impingement from an ignited torch. The instant invention in contrast provides a flint and striking surface arrayed between the ends of two relatively rotating cylinders to tend to eliminate both impact-type damage and any substantial flame impingement that might damage either flint or striking surface. This arrangement also tends to allow a more even mechanically determined pressure between flint and striking surface for more positive sparking as opposed especially to traditional hand manipulated strikers wherein such force is determined rather randomly by of the nature of the manual manipulation.
Torch cleaning devices have almost universally comprised a plurality of long, slender metallic rods or wires to allow cleaning of differently sized torch holes by their passage therethrough. These rods are more convenient and effective for use if they maintain a linear configuration and obviously must be maintained in proximity to avoid loss and be available for use. My invention maintains a plurality of such cleaning rods totally within a container by magnetic force so that the rods are readily available when desired and are yet physically protected when not in use.
My invention lies not in any one of these features per se, but rather in the particular and unique synergetic combination of all of them as disclosed and specified.